A receipt about the wizard

Uzbek youth will stay at home

The President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, de facto forbade young citizens of the country to leave for earnings in Russia. About what the goals of serfdom of the 21st century and why Karimov undertook to help the Russian nationalists - The New Times found out in Tashkent

Uzbekistan. Bukhara. On one of the streets of the city

The 24-year-old resident of Tashkent Olga does not complain about: she graduated from the Tashkent Institute of Oriental Studies, gives lectures, is engaged in photographs, writes articles ... Olga in a sense was lucky: when entering the institute, she said one point on the budget department, entered the commercial and, after graduation, was able to immediately receive a diploma. It is more difficult for state employees: in order to get a diploma, they are obliged to work out for the state within three years after the release: “Someone at half-time is settled in a museum or at the department, because living on a state salary of 150-300 thousand soums ($ 70– $ 140) is impossible, parents help someone,” Olga told the magazine.

But the Uzbek state seemed little to this obligation. Now, without exception, all applicants of universities and colleges, according to the unspoken order of the President, should give a written obligation not to leave the country's borders within a few years after graduation. And - sign under it.

March home!

Uzbekistan is the only country in the open spaces of the former USSR, in which there are visiting visas. True, they do not yet apply to the CIS, traveling to countries. But in order to go further, the Uzbeks need to get a visa on a special OVIR page in a national passport, which is both foreign. “There are usually no problems,” says Olga, “only recently introduced a new norm, according to which unmarried women under 35 years old is limited abroad: I was asked to come with my parents, and they wrote a statement that they have nothing against if I want to leave.”

However, most Uzbeks do not leave for Paris at all: new measures taken in Uzbekistan are designed primarily to limit the departure of young personnel to Russia.

The receipt of the non -departure is by no means a formal piece of paper: it is not enough to sign it yourself, so it is also necessary to assure the signatures of the official representatives of the mahalla (quarter), in which a particular young specialist lives. It is not yet about the criminal prosecution of violators: the “slope” and “fugitives” will be punished with serious fines. And the adoptive commissions of colleges and lyceums will now demand that their future students provide warranty letters from their Makhalinsky committees.

“All sorts of receipts of our bosses are already long -standing love,” says Olga. -Students' girls write receipts that they will not get married during their studies. If suddenly they violate the promise, parents will pay a fine for them. ”

“The mores are generally strictly monitored,” the interlocutor of the magazine adds, “we were constantly chased at the school for an ultrasound. They said, "just for the examination," but they actually looked so that there were no pregnant women. "

However, the case does not do with only receipts. According to the hot pursuit of the presidential order about the wonness of the wizard, the Makhalinsky activists, together with college and universities teachers, are already going around the houses of school graduates and entrusted information about them in a special accounting notebook - “Temir Dontar” (iron notebook): in addition to accounting, this measure is designed to intimidate potential labor migrants.

Leave from the hopelessness

Whatever the authorities do, it is unlikely that this will reduce the level of labor emigration, many in Uzbekistan believe. Almost all the young people with whom the New Times managed to talk only about leaving. 19-year-old Rafik said that he would sign the paper, but still leave "from this hopelessness." “There is no work here. If we physically close the border, we will just die of hunger, ”he is categorical.

“Older friends tell me that they pay well with you, many amenities, clean streets, you can love freely. No one bothers. Happy people live in Russia, ”says 21-year-old student Elmir. - I always wanted to leave. I will collect money for a fine and transfer to my parents when I finish my studies. Or I will quit everything and leave. ” Elmira’s brother is already on making money in Kaluga. He promised to pick her up when he “grows up”.

But the 26-year-old Yusuf says that he was not going to emigrate before, but in connection with the latest innovations, he also thought about it. “To find normal earnings from year to year (Yusuf now earns $ 200 per month, working at a car service station) is increasingly complicated. I know that in Russia black work and black life await me, but from there you can at least feed a family, ”he says.

"Lazyas go to Moscow"

The Uzbek media write that the twisting of the nuts in the field of migration did not accidentally happen right now: in the summer, Uzbek students traditionally go to seasonal work in Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey. Karimov previously regularly stigmatized labor migrants. “I call such lazy people, because, wanting to earn a lot of money, they go there and disgrace us all,” the president said in one of his interviews last week and added: “In Uzbekistan, few lazy are now few lazy. I consider lazy people who go to Moscow and sweep the streets there. You feel disgust that the Uzbeks are going there behind a piece of bread. In Uzbekistan, no one dies of hunger. ”

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“I know that in Russia black work and black life are waiting for me, but from there you can at least feed your family”

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According to official Uzbek statistics, unemployment covers only 4.8 % of the economically active population. However, according to the World Bank, the real level of unemployment in Uzbekistan can be from 20 % to 30 % depending on the region. And this data, apparently, is much closer to the truth, because even Karimov is now forced to recognize the existence of a problem: “Where will the college graduate who have been studied for three years find work? - Recently asked the president during one of the meetings. “I'm just afraid to imagine how much our children will wander in search of work.”

So that the "children" do not wander, the authorities are trying to come up with the work. The other day, for example, it was ordered to repaint all the Christmas trees in Tashkent.

The border is not closed yet

Uzbek Lazyev in Russia, according to the Federal Migration Service (FMS), no less than 2.5 million, that is, 20 % of the total number of labor migrants. Moreover, the flow of leaving for earnings in the Russian Federation only increases. Abroad, the Uzbeks are practically doomed to unskilled labor: the Russian language in schools has become almost an optional, and its in -depth study simply does not have no.

The second country in which the Uzbeks flee is Kazakhstan. According to unofficial data, there are also about 2.5 million there. According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, migrants from Uzbekistan in 2012 sent more than $ 6 billion, 33 % more than in 2011. (By the way, Tajikistan is in second place in this indicator, whose citizens last year transferred $ 4 billion to their homeland). For comparison: the total GDP of Uzbekistan in 2012 amounted to a little more than $ 51 billion. It turns out that the money expelled by mileage from mileageers is comparable to the profit received by the country from the export of cotton and gas.

The famous Uzbek politician, dissident Muhammad Salikh told The New Times that the situation with labor in the country is catastrophic: "The total outflow of youth began around 1996 and has not stopped yet." The politician estimates the total number of Uzbeks from the country of 9 million people - that is, a third of the country's population.

Salikh does not believe in the official statistics of the FMS of the Russian Federation: according to him, Uzbeks in Russia are at least twice as much, just half of them are not registered.

The outflow of youth from Uzbekistan led to an acute lack of hands in both factories and cotton plantations. “That is why Karimov is forced to expel schoolchildren to the cotton fields,” says Salikh. Not excluding, however, that the president’s irritation about migrants can be played: “The outflow of young people, in theory, must reassure the soul of the old ruler: after all, it is young people who are the bearer of the riot virus and“ material for the revolution ”. And the fact that revolutions are able to flare up instantly, Karimov probably already understood from the releases of international news. ”

However, according to other interlocutors of The New Times, the Uzbeks are apolitical to the bulk, if not to say amorphous. Any problems for them are solved in one way - departure. And even after the last statements of President Karimov, according to the car service officer Yusuf, even those who had seriously did not think to leave the country: “You never know, suddenly he (the president) would close the borders in general. Then what, to run through the desert? "

Photo: ITAR-TASS